When the Ambassador was recently welcomed to our shores, the answer to this question concerning us, asked by him so long ago, was found awaiting him.
It was spoken clearly and loudly by our teeming products of agriculture and mining, and echoed in thunder tones by our mammoth shops and factories of industry, and it was seen shining in the happy faces of our busy and prosperous people.
Upon the golden page of to-day in our splendid history will stand out the assuring fact that this surpassingly successful state of things has not blossomed and come forth under the blighting shade of the deadly Upas tree of Socialism, but that it has all been developed by and through Individualism.
In conclusion, let me impress upon you that Individualism in the United States has stood all tests—especially the crucial tests of time and experience—and it points with pride and satisfaction to the great developments secured for the American people under the bright and beneficent rays of our admirable Constitution and Republican form of government.
And if the aim of all government is to ensure prosperity to the country, and happiness to the people it controls, the unrivaled excellence of Individualism may fairly be judged by its magnificent results.
Edwin Markham, Esq., the Author and Poet, being agreed upon by both parties to the debate, presided at the meeting.
At the close of the above address the chairman addressed the 5,000 assemblage as follows:
“Ladies and Gentlemen: I hope you have enjoyed listening to Mr. Clews’s very able address as much as I have. He swept the entire horizon and has left nothing more to be said on his side.”
Mr. Markham then introduced Professor Kirkpatrick, to combat Mr. Clews’s arguments.